QUESTION: - How big, is big?

With thanks to my South African correspondent for the following amazing perspective on the relative size (rather than the size of our relatives) of Earth and our planetary cousins. The first image shows that in a straight fight with either Venus, Mars, Mercury or Pluto, Earth would be a clear winner: -


However, if any of the other planets look as though they may want to join in, the following image shows that it would be wise for Earth to either throw in the figurative "planetary towel", or prepare for one hell of a beating: -

Clearly if our solar system were ever to ask "does my Uranus look big in this? (Apologies for school-boy humour!) The answer would clearly be no! However, before Jupiter starts to get too full of itself, or too big for its "planetary boots", the following image should do the trick: -


But it doesn't end here. As big as our sun is it is only a mere dot when compared with the brightest stars in the sky: -




On this scale our Sun hardly registers, and yet these are only objects within our Solar System. There are many millions of Galaxies beyond ours and so when somebody asks whether "size matters?", it might be worth trying to put their question into some context. Or, if you think that your faced with a "big" problem, how big can it really be?